Why can we track a meal traveling across town almost minute by minute, yet an international parcel can seemingly disappear between checkout and delivery?
In this episode, I speak with Dieter Van Putte from Crossborder Global, a division of Bnode that provides global commerce and logistics services. Dieter oversees technology and operations across Landmark Global and Apple Express, giving him a close view of what happens when retailers attempt to sell and deliver products across international markets.
Dieter explains why cross border delivery remains so difficult to track despite years of investment in supply chain technology. A domestic shipment may involve one main carrier, but an international order can pass between warehouses, road carriers, airports, airlines, customs authorities and final-mile delivery companies. Each participant may record events differently, operate at a different level of technical maturity or provide information at a different speed.
We discuss why the customer rarely sees this complexity. They simply expect to know when their order will arrive, what duties and taxes they must pay, plus what will happen if the product needs to be returned. When retailers cannot provide those answers, the problem quickly becomes one of trust rather than logistics alone.
Dieter also describes the less visible cost of manual reconciliation. Teams can spend hours checking carrier websites, comparing rates, reviewing spreadsheets, correcting customs information and translating inconsistent tracking events. Mistakes create further work through delayed parcels, billing disputes, customer inquiries and complaints. The direct labor cost matters, but the effect on repeat purchases and customer reviews may prove even more expensive.
Our conversation then turns to the role of automation and AI. Dieter explains how technology can support product classification, customs documentation, landed-cost calculations and exception handling. We also examine logistics control towers, which combine data from multiple parties to provide an end-to-end view of an order. With enough reliable information, these systems can detect patterns, predict delays and recommend or initiate corrective action before the customer is affected.
There is plenty of promise here, but good software cannot remove every customs rule, carrier handoff or data-quality problem. Retailers still need the right partners, accurate product information and a clear understanding of the promise they are making at checkout.
Could better use of data finally make international delivery feel as dependable as domestic shipping, and what would need to change first? Listen to the conversation and share your thoughts with me.
[00:00:00] What really happens after you click buy now on a website halfway around the world? I think most of us just expect that we'd be able to track our parcel every single step of the way. But behind that simple experience is an incredibly complex web of carriers, customs authorities, regulations, tariffs and data.
[00:00:24] And my guest today is going to explain why international logistics remains one of the toughest technology challenges in commerce. But this is a tech podcast and I'm a solutions not problems kind of guy. So we'll also talk about how artificial intelligence and other tech tools are helping retailers deliver the speed and visibility that we all now expect as customers. But I'm not going to give you any spoilers. Let's dive straight in.
[00:00:53] And let me introduce you to my guest right away. So thank you for joining me on the podcast today. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Yeah, hello. So I'm Dieter van Putten. I'm the CTEU for Landmark Global. So Landmark Global is the cross-border logistics division for B-Node. And what we are doing is our motto is open your world.
[00:01:18] So we are helping our customers to ship internationally and making international e-commerce for them easier. So we specialize in shipping, customs, fulfillment, and actually all the cross-border solutions that clients will need if they want to do international e-commerce. A bit more about me perhaps also. So I'm based in Belgium. I have a degree in computer science engineering. Before I was a CTEU, I worked 20 years in technology consulting. And I'm very passionate about technology.
[00:01:47] I'm also very happy to be here today. Yeah, and that's about it. Well, it's a pleasure to have you join me. There's so much that I want to talk with you about today. Because if we look at our own behavior, I think there have been so many changes in how, as consumers, we have almost grown accustomed to tracking a package from checkout delivery. Every step of that journey, we get notifications.
[00:02:10] As you said, though, cross-border commerce remains one of the biggest visibility challenges in supply chains. And I've had personal experience of this as well. But I've got to ask, why is international delivery still so difficult to track and manage despite years of investment in technology? What's happening here? Yeah, sometimes people are thinking about international delivery also like they have the experience domestic.
[00:02:37] Domestic, you have one party, you order at a shop, and it's delivering domestically. In the US, it's delivering at your home. So that's one. But with the cross-border, internationally, there's much more into play. So one side, it's not only one party, there are multiple parties involved. You have the party, for example, someone is delivering in the US. Let me take an example, perhaps. So imagine someone from the US is ordering a T-shirt in Belgium. Yeah.
[00:03:07] For that, yeah, first, yeah, the web shop is ordering something. There's a Belgian web shop, it's ordering there. But then from that warehouse there in Belgium, it needs to arrive to the doorstop in the US. So there's one carrier, one company taking that parcel from the warehouse there, bring it to the airport, for example, if it's with airport. There is another company handling it, picking it over and bringing it from the airport to the airplane.
[00:03:33] There's again then the airplane, the company, airplane company, transferring it to the US, somewhere in the US. It can be nearby the place where you live, it can be also somewhere else. And then from that moment, it's delivered to your home. So that's the typical flow. What I did mention here and what is also important to know, in between, you also have other parties like customs because your parcel needs to be cleared. And that is from the country you leave, but also in the country where the parcel is coming in.
[00:04:01] So there are a lot of parties involved and that's a quite easy journey. It can be more complex if, for example, there's no direct flight from Belgium to US. You first need to go to the UK and then from UK to US. And then there's even more parties being involved. So you can imagine with all these parties involved, it's much more complex than just the parcel domestic. And that makes it very hard. Why it's hard is all these handovers between all these parties, which makes it very complex. But also the maturity.
[00:04:31] Not every party is very mature in their digital. Some parties are really advanced, have IoT tracking that your real time can follow up where the truck is driving or where the flight is flying. So you can really know at that time, where is my parcel. But other carriers, other trucks, they don't have that. They only have their phone, mobile phone. And then they, maybe regular once per day, they send a message, I parked here now.
[00:04:58] Or they only send a message when the parcel is actually arriving at the destination. So there's a different types of data availability on that one. And that maturity, all these different parties and all these different parties are also communicating in a different way. They have their own. So for some, some parcel being delivered at the home is called delivered at home. The other one is called delivered. The other one comes arrived.
[00:05:26] And it's also different codes, et cetera. It's not the one that makes it also very complex. You need to map all the different signals, all the different events. And then all these different parties, different formats and all with a different maturity. And that whole end-to-end chain makes it very complex to come at the end to one view that the customer sees. The customer is going to one website and see, where is my parcel? But behind that, there's a lot of complexity I just explained.
[00:05:54] So this is a bit, very complex. And there is technology to help there nowadays. But yeah, maturity is not yet fully there. And what else sort of about what you're doing here? You oversee technology across Landmark Global and Apple Express. So from your perspective, which I feel like somewhat of a unique vantage point here, what are you seeing are the biggest operational headaches that retailers are facing right now, especially when they try and expand into international markets?
[00:06:24] And what challenges are catching them by surprise? What are you seeing out there? Yeah, especially for our small, medium shops, they're doing well in their own country and they want to go abroad. Sometimes people, as I also just explained, also from the customer side, doing business domestic and doing business internationally is not the same. So internationally it's not domestic just with a longer distance.
[00:06:52] There are much more other parties being involved. And for that, to map that as a customer, you need to know, for example, when will the package be delivered? It's not always so easy to predict because of all these different parties being involved, etc. Also the right custom setup. Like I said, the customs are involved in every, in the leaving country and the open country and also sometimes in the pass-through countries. So that makes it also complex that every country have their own customs,
[00:07:21] their own regulations that you need to follow. Like now what is hard for Europe is, for example, the 1st of July for every small parcel, we have the 3 euro fee that needs to be there. So that's a new rule for EU, also for the US. There are new rules coming that need to be implemented. So that makes it also hard. You need to be able to follow all these new rules. Then as a customer, when you order something like the example from Belgium,
[00:07:50] you want to know how much you are paying. So you have the price of the T-shirt itself, like I mentioned, but there's also the duties and taxes. And that's, aliyah, that also need to be calculated with all these complex rules, etc. So that's also the very difficult one. And overall, but at the end, that's all for the company itself. That makes it very complex. And also there for customs, maybe a bit more also on customs, you have the customs rules, etc.
[00:08:20] But there are a lot of things like product classification, special data fields that you need to enter, etc. If you miss something, then it gets stuck at custom and can get stuck a long time in there, over there. And then it takes time until you have the package being delivered. So that takes a lot of time. But for at the end, if I then look from customer point of view, they still require a kind of the same experience as it would be domestic. They would like to know first, how much do I need to pay?
[00:08:49] So that's company, that small, medium company or larger company need to know exactly how much will it cost. So that's already complexity with all these rules. Because as a customer, I would like to know how much do I need to pay to not run into surprises. As a customer, you would have at least an indication when the parcel is arriving. It should not take weeks or months. It should be decently. So also, if there's something wrong and you want to return it,
[00:09:17] hold on to the retailer to know how to answer all these questions to the customer. And for that, you need some specialized companies as Lumbar Global. We should also highlight that many organizations out there still rely on manual reconciliation across so many different multiple systems from carriers to customs processors, etc. So I'm curious, what hidden cost does this create, both financially and in terms of that customer experience?
[00:09:46] It feels like there's so many different moving pieces here. Yeah, there are a lot of moving pieces indeed. So let me look at it from two angles. So you have the angle from the hidden cost from the company itself. You have the angle from the hidden cost towards the customer itself. So manual reconciliation, as you mentioned, it's difficult to estimate the cost because there's a lot of hidden costs. Like if it's all manual, you have people checking spreadsheets. Like I mentioned, you have multiple carriers.
[00:10:16] So you have to look on the websites. Look what is the best rate. If it's this country, when it's the rate of this country, and you have to do a comparison, etc. You have that complex thing on customs. So you need to know which are the right fields. How to enter that. Follow the latest regulations. Sometimes the tracking events that I just mentioned, you have all the carriers sending different types of information. If you need to manually change all these events to something decent that is feasible for the customer,
[00:10:46] it makes a lot of manual work altogether. And the people, if you're not in the business, you underestimate that. And it makes it very complex. And the cost can go very high, etc. Because it's much slower. If there's an exception, because it goes slower, you could have also more customer service inquiries, complaints that you need to handle. Also that billing. Because calculating these duties and taxes from the different counties,
[00:11:15] if you make a mistake, how will you handle these mistakes? It's not easy to recuperate. So there's a lot of costs that you are losing there. And then from a customer experience, Ali, important in your business is that the customer is trusting you. Trust is very important if you want to have continued business. And also the reviews on the website is important. It's there. It's coming as a retail. So if you have, with all the manual reconciliation, you are not able to give the right time when it will deliver.
[00:11:43] Or not say this is the right amount you need to pay. Also, if something goes wrong, if you don't have the proactive communication, yeah, sorry, there's a small delay because of that reason. If you are not able to do that because everything is manually, then you lose also the customer trust. And that also impacts, of course, the new revenues. So I have one side, the costs internally of all that manual work and externally. Towards the customer, that if you're not able to do decent service to a customer,
[00:12:12] typically customers also do less business with you. So that's important overall. Yeah. And on top of that, to further complicate matters, we have tariffs, trade regulations, and customs requirements all seem to be changing on a continuous basis. So how are tech platforms helping retailers remain agile in an environment where the rules just feel like they can shift overnight? That's also, I think, also based on what I would all say,
[00:12:40] all that manual work, et cetera, and there technology can really help. You can automate a lot of stuff. Also, AI is really, not called a holy grail, but it's helping a lot on these mothers. So you can, if I have a tarot and question, that duty calculation, something, what is called, typically it's a landed cost calculator. If you can offer that and calculate all these things, all that manual reconciliation work is disappearing. Also, that tracking, if you have something automatically
[00:13:08] to bundle everything together, all these events to make it directly more transparent, automated, et cetera, that makes all life much more easier. For AI perspective, why I say it's very important, it's like you have HS classification, that's the code to understand which kind of item you have. You have an HS code, it's called that, and based on the HS code, the duties and tax are being calculated. But AI can help identify, based on this product, this is the HS code,
[00:13:38] and based on this is H code, you can then also calculate your duties and taxes. You have the documents you require, which fields you need to fill, AI, but also your platform can help automatically fill these fields, et cetera. Also exceptions, if something happens, it goes wrong, it's very clear what is wrong, and could they have a recommended action for the next step? So there's a lot of technology solutions that you can bring into the table to remove that complexity for a big part,
[00:14:08] in case you have to do any, instead of doing everything manually. So that helps a lot more. Do you struggle to keep your AI agents from acting outside of compliance? Well, Denodo provides an AI data layer connecting your data systems, keeping guardrails consistent across all of your data platforms. So start scaling your business carefree with Denodo. And you can do that by visiting denodo.com to learn more.
[00:14:37] But now, on with today's show. And Amazon Prime members listening, they will have grown accustomed to one-click checkouts, next-day delivery, or even the same day on some occasions. And as a result, customer expectations for delivery speed are going to continue to rise, regardless of whether the package is traveling across a city or across continents. So a tricky position for the average retailer. How are they balancing those kind of expectations
[00:15:06] with the realities of a global logistics network like Amazon has? Yeah, good questions. And Amazon has all that complexity and all are there and is handling all that complexity and makes that thing. But to get there, there's a lot to do. There's a lot, like I explained, there's a lot behind to get there, etc. And therefore, you have parties to help you in that, like Landmark Global, because as a medium retailer or whatever retailer, if you're not an Amazon,
[00:15:37] it's like I already mean, it's a lot of effort to do all this kind of stuff. To get there, yeah, it's nearly impossible if you don't have the size to do it. So there, we come in as Landmark Global, but there are also other parties like that that we can help facilitate this type of work. Yeah, we can help on the customs, we can help on the tracking, the trick, we can set up how to go internationally, etc. So that's how we can help in that. One concept that is maybe important there and what we are looking at
[00:16:06] is maybe the future. I also recently wrote something about that. And what also Amazon has something similar is a control tower. So that's a kind of solution that is out there. what is a control tower? A control tower is that helps is a technology helping you to get that full visibility. It's also in the name. It's a tower. And you can see from that perspective everything what is happening from the moment the order is made
[00:16:36] by that US person there in the Belgian shop with the t-shirt until it's delivered at the doorstep. Now that it's helping to get that fully that unified view from end to end on what is happening there. And then everything is plugging in into that control tower. So you have there the different carriers the different parties being involved in the whole chain are sending this data. The customers are sending their data.
[00:17:06] So it's a lot about data collecting everything about all the data to have everything an unified view of all the data happening. But that control tower is doing something with that data. Based on the data it can see it can detect patterns with the data carrier there's a typically delay of there or the data is being sent a bit typically like that. So there's historical patterns. It can also add a bit if you have a digital twin functionality it can also simulate data. So it makes
[00:17:35] there and that's also kind of technology for Amazon. You can simulate based on historical patterns and also based on certain events when data is arriving it can simulate what is happening in the chain also have more accurate delivery times. It can also help that control tower view can also help if something goes wrong based on all the data what goes wrong and automatically correct it and with automatic correct it can automate it or can just
[00:18:04] generate an alert that someone of operations teams can be involved and fix the issue or can automatically correct with some what I say also a bit back to AI you have agentic AI agents that can pick up the exception and based on the data do some action to help resolve the issue. So there's a lot of potential solutions and technology that can help here but via a different party and I don't think it's the purpose to have
[00:18:33] as you mentioned all the retailers compared to Amazon need to set that all up it makes it very complex for them to set that all up but like that control technology you can go very very far as you can imagine. And looking at the companies that are getting cross-border commerce right out there what would you say they're doing differently from competitors that may be still struggling with fragmented systems limited visibility etc. What's the difference between those getting it right and the ones still struggling?
[00:19:10] being involved in that cross-border journey so where do you get it where are you really being involved and what I mean with that is that you can be involved at the end of your customer journey or can be part at the start of the customer journey and there is a big difference between certain companies so some specific companies are really from the start as part of the checkout when you go in the shop in the checkout itself you see already like I mentioned there
[00:19:40] what is the cost fully the duty costs the taxes I need to pay also have a clear view when it needs will be delivered also instructions how it can be returned etc. So it's very important there that you are the first and not not yet all cross-border commerce are there some are still you just buy your t-shirt I'm keeping with that t-shirt example and then everything comes only at the end that it's calculated so people are not having that right experience so there
[00:20:10] it's still a bit that's an important one so that's being as much as possible at the front of the customer journey that's one of the angles another angle is perhaps the use of data so you can have data in the companies that you just use for example for reporting or the sales or can really use the data as I just explained to steer certain actions so have that proactivity to ensure that instead of being reactive look at the report okay
[00:20:40] these number of parcels were delivered too late and okay let's do better next time that's an approach other companies are more successful are really using this data and like I mentioned in an example the control tower technology is instead of using the data also to anticipate automatically to steer do automatic corrections then instead of having all these parcels too late delivered and just report out of it
[00:21:08] also help already to make these parcels be delivered on time by doing certain actions so you anticipate so using the data really as an operational asset to steer your delivery to ensure that you still meet that customer promise so that's also a one and the third what I also see is based on all the data etc and also based on the service engine you can launch new digital services which makes it easier
[00:21:38] for the crossburger commerce for example your special related to carrier tracking alter returns processes customs etc so you can help there also in that technology so these are the three bits according to me new so customer journey importantly the data and then a bit looking at simplification using digital services etc and we have been very fortunate that we've somehow managed to go 25 minutes in a tech podcast without
[00:22:08] mentioning AI but we have to mention it of course as we look ahead how do you see AI automation and real time data how do you see these things collectively changing the future of international commerce and how do you see it defining maybe the next generation of global delivery experiences do you see it having a big impact here well AI is all over the world yeah I really truly believe that AI will have a huge impact on global logistics at the end
[00:22:37] so I look at different angles that cost some compliance because that's really a lot of rule based document based and all I think AI can be perfectly used for all these cases and we see that already today that these are the first use cases popping up in different companies how to use AI for HS code classification for document processing etc so that's an easy one then that control toward the predictability when certain things will be delivered
[00:23:07] their AI will also be important and it's where I see really there is currently you have still a lot of companies that are being reactive so things are happening and then they look after us how to improve the process but there I see with AI that you can steer the process more real time live directly and improve the quality of the delivery so you go from active and that's also a very important one what I also see for logistics
[00:23:36] companies most of the companies also have a broad IT landscape so AI also for IT itself has a huge impact for software delivery with AI so going from the typical SDDC with developers and now you have more the assisted AI that you use to help you to code to go more to autonomous AI that you really have with the harness engineering etc there really have AI agents building the software for you so for IT there's
[00:24:06] also impact but that's also part of logistics and also in other departments in logistics HR so it's actually broad logistics industry as a whole but also every department within the organization is impacted by AI so yeah it's I believe a huge impact there and also customers currently and it's what you also have with typically now if I look for example to Google Bing or I don't know what you're using for a search search thing typically in the past you use Google search for example to look data
[00:24:36] things up currently people are people using more and more LLMs chat modes talking with bots and then it's search for you and gets a return on that also for logistics how you interact we have our websites where you have the tracking information but gradually instead of having the tracker of your customer service calling AI is also starting you need to be able to plug in in the most popular LLMs and also being able to via these channels you can connect with your logistics
[00:25:06] company and know where is my parcel etc same for the customer service like picking up phones but for phones now you have customer service which keeps don't get me wrong the personal touch keeps on being important but it will gradually for some standard questions that you could have an AI person the AI personality at your phone replying on a certain type of question where is my parcel for example so there's a lot of AI everywhere I see and it's difficult to see things go fast and it goes very
[00:25:36] fast so where do we land in the coming five years it's difficult to predict at this moment but I see a huge impact on logistics so a lot of intelligence predictability customer service and all will be added overall towards the customer but also internally how the organization will work there will be also huge impact everywhere awesome well thank you so much for sitting down with me and for anyone listening that wants to find out more information or dig a little bit deeper on why cross
[00:26:05] border remains the most complex data visibility challenge despite the billions invested in supply chain tech or just dig a little bit deep on anything that we raised today where would you like to point everyone listening yeah of course we have our website landmarkglobal.com so there you find a lot about everything we are doing with cross border and also complexity we also have our linkedin channels we have the linkedin of myself you can see where i'm sometimes posting things and also the linkedin of landmarkglobal where we are
[00:26:33] often placing articles on the complexity of cross border and what is happening and giving you insights etc so these are so website landmarkglobal.com or linkedin my marketing or the landmarkglobal you can find a lot of information so looking forward to to continue the conversation yeah for one i've learned so much today around that hidden cost that surrounds manual reconciliation from limited speed to decrease customer satisfaction
[00:27:03] and then looking to the future how ai driven logistics could redefine operational speed and reliability and also why early adopters out there are setting this new benchmark for rapid cross border delivery models and for people listening what has stood out to you today what will you be doing different and i will invite you all to check out the blog post accompanying this episode over at techtalksnetwork.com i'll include links to everything that my guests mentioned there but more than anything just thank you for
[00:27:33] to you for coming on here and starting this conversation let's hope we can keep it going but thanks very much i think today's conversation revealed just how much work goes into making cross border commerce feel effortless and my guest highlighted why visibility automation and high quality data have become just as important as planes trucks and warehouses and it was interesting to hear how ai is helping logistics teams move from
[00:28:03] just reacting to problems to preventing them before they happen but i'd love to hear your thoughts as a customer are your expectations continuing to rise is ai becoming the difference between retailers that keep pace and those that fall behind with inferior experiences as always let me know techtalksnetwork.com there's so many different ways you can reach me and don't forget to connect with me on linkedin instagram and all
[00:28:32] the socials at neil c hughes but that's it i've taken up far too much of your time today i'll speak with you all again tomorrow bright and out